Chapter 41 : Testimonials

The case of the tragic death of the five officials came to a half-month deadline, the Minister of Justice submitted a report to announce that the case was solved, saying that the murderers were a group of bandits who hated court officials and were extremely vicious, and had roamed into the imperial capital to look for a target to target, and just happened to bump into a few officials who had been drinking until the middle of the night, and then killed them.

The murderers were all apprehended and confessed to the crime, signing and pressing their handprints on the confession of guilt.

The emperor ordered the prisoners to be executed by lynching, things finally settled down, in addition to the occasional lamentation of a few words of the deceased died too wrongly, and then no one wants to mention this matter.

The "dragon robe case" under the leadership of Wu Ruyi, a well-organised investigation, all the circumstances are unfavourable to Feng Taishi.

A rumour of unknown origin began to circulate in the marketplace - "The reason why the Empress Feng helped the inconsistent Second Prince to become the Crown Prince was for the purpose of usurping the throne in the future".

The Imperial Prefect hurriedly sent more people to patrol the streets to prohibit the rumour from spreading, but there is no impermeable wall in the world, the rumour was still known by the Emperor and court officials, coupled with the "Dragon Robe Case" immediately set off an outcry, the officials of the Feng Taishi's faction are on edge, fearing that the Emperor will convict the Feng Taishi and implicate them at the same time.

But half a day but did not see the emperor has any action, so that the people have two feet monk can not feel the head of the feeling, can only first wait and see what happens.

Pei Siyan, the initiator, holding the folders, walked into the imperial study. The palace people did not know where to go, the emperor sat behind the imperial case, his arm supporting his head, his eyes closed tightly, seemed to be napping.

"Emperor?" Pei Si Yan softly called out, placing the zhang folds neatly on the case, getting closer to find that the Emperor's face was getting more and more haggard, a deep greenish colour under his eyes, obviously caused by lack of sleep and excessive fatigue.

The emperor sleeps very shallow, Pei Siyan just shouted twice and woke up, he sighed long, rubbed some numb arms, leaned to the back of the chair, "how many zhangzuo today?"

"Not much, a total of ten, of which there is a West Yan County to the fold ..." Pei Siyan said, went to look for that fold, the corner of the eye glanced to the side of the bright yellow brocade cover of the fold, the heart jumped, she looked at the eyes and re-closed his eyes, the emperor, a strong desire to spread out the Folding to see whose name is written inside, but this is really too risky.

Pei Siyan thought about it and gave up, taking out the folders that were presented from Xiyan County, ''The water conservancy construction has been successfully completed, the people have started a new life, and everything is safe. Lord Assassin is confident that Xiyan County will prosper."

The emperor nodded his head.

Pei Si Yan opened the next zhang fold and said, "Your Majesty ..."

"Wuban," the Emperor suddenly spoke, "I'm sure you know about the rumours circulating outside of the palace about Imperial Master Feng, right?"

"Yes, I have heard about it." Pei Si Yan said, when she put down the folders, she saw the folders for the enthronement of the Crown Prince again, and her heart itched again.

"How do you feel about this matter?"

Pei Si Yan swept a smile in her eyes and replied, "Feng Taishi's sagacity and loyalty is obvious to all in the court, and all his colleagues respect him like a teacher, but ..."

The emperor slightly opened his eyes to look at sweep Pei Si Yan, "Continue."

Pei Si Yan hesitated for a moment, "The so-called no wind can't afford waves, there must be a reason for what happened to cause the gossip. Your Majesty, I believe that Lord Wushu will definitely give you a satisfactory answer as to the right and wrong of this matter, and by then we will know whether the rumours are facts or rumours. I don't know the truth of it, and I can't say anything ..."

"No wind can't make waves?..." the emperor muttered and repeated.

Pei Si Yan licked her dry lips, not taking the Emperor's words.

"Then what do you think of the second prince?" The Emperor asked again, his eyes falling on the bright yellow fold, reaching out his hand and stroking over it delicately, as if it was a rare and exotic treasure in the world.

Pei Si Yan embarrassedly smiled, "Your Majesty, I do not have much contact with His Royal Highness the Second Prince, so how His Royal Highness is as a person I do not dare to comment."

The emperor did not seem to hear Pei Si Yan speak, his eyes looked at the folders, muttering to himself, "The late emperor wrongly chose the crown prince to brew a big disaster, I must not step in his dust, let the world laugh at it ah ..."

Pei Si Yan also pretended not to hear.

At this time, Eunuch Qian came in from outside and saw that Wu Pan was also there, nodded and then walked to the side of the Emperor and presented a folded book, "Emperor, the slave just got the war report sent by eight hundred miles of expedited delivery."

The emperor's eyes snapped open, a hand from the hands of Eunuch Qian took the folding, opened it and read it carefully word by word.

Pei Si Yan stretched her neck to peek, it turned out to be the news that "King Hui" had quelled most of the rebels. She looked at the emperor who was still reading the content and remembered what Lan Xuan once said about wanting to be praised by the emperor.

It's not easy to get good news, will the emperor praise this son who has never been indifferent?

Pei Si Yan felt her heart clench.

In the past, no matter how much blue pleasant achievements, the emperor has never praised a word and a half sentence, this time maybe still the same it ... can not hope ah, the greater the hope by then the disappointment is also the greater, negative.

"Snap", the emperor closed the fold, after a while long sigh: "pleasant child do good ah, good ah ..."

Pei Si Yan couldn't believe her ears and almost laughed out loud.

The Emperor really complimented Lanxuan!

If Lanxuan was also in the imperial study right now and heard the emperor's words with his own ears how good it would be!

"Wu Pan, I'm tired, you go down first."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Pei Siyan glances at the folded paper and bows as she retreats.

******

"Wait! Delivering food? Why do you two look so unfamiliar?" At the back door of Feng Mansion, the black-clothed magistrate stopped a few villagers dressed as people driving ox carts, carefully looking up and down, "Who are you people?"

The peasant woman who was asked to speak politely harrumphed, "Aunt Cai is sick, I am a neighbour of her family, and I was asked to please, so I came over with my brother to help."

The guard half-heartedly looked at the peasant woman and her brother, and then walked over to the oxcart to check the fruits and vegetables in the basket, and after determining that there was no abnormality, he waved his hand to let them in.

"Thank you, Lord Official." The people thanked him repeatedly and brought the oxcart into the Feng family's backdoor, walking into the path reserved for servants.

After avoiding the sight of the magistrate, the peasant woman from earlier indignantly pulled off the scarf wrapped around her head and threw it on the ground, glaring down at the rough linen clothes she was wearing, seemingly feeling very uncomfortable and twisting her shoulders a few times.

"Is there no other way to enter the Feng family gate?" She lowered her voice and angrily asked her "brother".

The middle-aged man walking behind her glared back at her impatiently and said unhappily, "The Feng family has tunnels leading outside, but unfortunately we don't know where the exit is and Lord Feng can't just come out. Lady Yueruo, you should bear with it for the time being, when the big event comes to fruition, you can do whatever you want."

Lady Yue Luo "hmph", turning over and over to look at the white washed sleeves, muttered: "After more than forty years of life, when have I ever worn such dirty and uncomfortable clothes ... but also nodded and bowed to the lowly magistrates, it's a disgrace! It is simply a shame! When I sit in the seat of Wu Pan, I will definitely make these people worse than death!"

"Please shut your mouth, can you?" The middle-aged man droned vaguely.

Lady Yue Luo didn't hear him and said curiously, "I mean, you can actually stand to wear this kind of clothes and do things that only pariahs do? Even though you are the commoner son of Wuluo's eldest house, you've been raised with respect and haven't suffered since you were a child, so it's really rare."

The middle-aged man rolled his eyes, didn't say anything, and quickened his pace to go in front of Lady Yueruo.

"Hey, Chu Qingping," Lady Yue Luo shouted, pulling on the man's clothes, "Where are you going!"

"Let go!" Chu Qingping of the Wuluo family shook off Lady Yueruo's hand, his brows furrowing in impatience, "What's the decency of pulling on my clothes in broad daylight? Also, where did you come up with so much nonsense today? You want to be heard and reveal our identity, don't you?"

"Where are the other people here?" Lady Yue Luo pointed at the other farmers walking alongside the oxcart, "They are all your own people, what are you afraid of? Can't I just whine a little?"

"Too lazy to talk nonsense with you." Chu Qingping squinted at Lady Yue Luo and turned into another path on the side.

"You guys send everything to the kitchen." Lady Yueruo commanded and hurriedly followed Chu Qingping.

The two of them skilfully dodged the guards standing guard one after the other, quietly slipped all the way to a small courtyard, and after looking around to make sure no one was there, opened the door to a room and went in.

Inside the room there were already quite a few people sitting, full of sadness hanging their heads not daring to look at the old man in the first seat. Lady Yue Luo recognised that most of them were Feng's family members who were officials in the court, and some of them were Feng Taishi's henchmen, looking at their clothes and crowns, she was puzzled in her heart - how did these people get into Feng Taishi's residence which was tightly guarded?

There were two empty seats on the right hand side of the Feng Taishi, Lady Yueruo and Chu Qingping nodded with the officials and sat over.

Chu Qingping asked solemnly, "Lord Feng, what is the important matter that you have summoned us here for today?"

Lady Yueruo's gaze still lingered on the costumes of the crowd and then looked at her own, her cheeks instantly burned and she was so embarrassed that she could not wait to find a hole in the ground to burrow into.

Feng Taishi coughed a few times, slowly said: "This marketplace rumours ... you two have also heard of it, right? At this juncture, rumours are fiercer than tigers ah! If the Emperor is compelled to believe it, the consequences are really worrying, so we need to pre-empt it!"

In the last four words, Imperial Master Feng's tone was heavy.

Lady Yue Luo's heart violently trembled as her gaze finally turned to Imperial Master Feng, "Lord Feng is right, please give the order."

A trace of anger swept across Taishi Feng's face, "Lady Yueruo, how is the second house of your Wuban family prepared? Apart from the eldest house, it is your second house that has the most power, so don't let my old husband down before you do so."

Lady Yueruo smiled twice, her fingers twisting her sleeves, not knowing how to reply to Eunuch Feng's question, the gazes of the crowd all fell on her, making her feel even more constricted.

Ever since the matriarch personally inspected the monthly accounts of the house's income and expenditure, she was no longer as free as she once was to take silver from the accounts under false pretences, and although there were officials in the second house, they did not earn much. They are not like the ten houses that have big business dealings and can earn a lot of money every month. This money can make the ghost push mill, no money ...

What can be done?

And since the matriarch took over Wu Pan, not only busy in the government, at the same time intervene in the family trivia - in the matriarch's continuous coordination and persuasion, in addition to her second house, most of the clan to get along with more and more harmonious, simply can not afford to pick on the long house can produce hatred of the matter.

With harmony in the family, how could they unite the clansmen to drive the eldest house out of power?

Although previously raised a lot of people and financial resources, but with the Feng Tai Shi desired is still far from, even to the current long house to death can not be done, other things can only be out of reach.

"How?" Imperial Master Feng asked.

Lady Yue Luo wiped her sweat with her sleeve, "Everything is prepared according to what you commanded, my lord ..."

Feng Taishi pursued, "Then how is it prepared?"

"Please rest assured, my lord, there will be no mistakes ..."

"Bang", the teacup fell on the ground, Feng Taishi was so angry that his face was red, everyone was silenced.

"Don't try to lie to old me," Feng Taishi looked angrily at Lady Yue Luo, his fingers clenched into fists, veins clearly visible, "Look at what you've done in this one room. Tantai Yan is nothing, yet you can't even deal with a yellow-haired girl? Do you guys still want to turn around and sit in Witch Pan's position?"

Mrs. Yue Luo felt her legs weakening, she "flopped" fell to her knees and said in a trembling voice: "Your Excellency ... Tantai Yan is, after all, the head of the Wuban and a clan, and no matter what, it is still bigger than our rights ah! ..."

"When Tantai Yu was alive, weren't you all lawless?" Feng Taishi sneered coldly, "I thought that you had some scruples about him after all, so I sent someone to assassinate him so that that girl could take over as the clan leader, so that it would be beneficial to you, but what have you done? Could it be that it was a wrong decision for the old man to agree to co-operate with you in the first place?"

"Da, lord ..." Lady Yue Luo didn't know what else she could say.

Feng Taishi fiercely stood up, looking down at the shivering woman, "At this critical moment, you guys actually give old me a drag ... Good ah good ah, don't want you Wuban clan as well!"

Lady Yue Luo raised her head, looked at Feng Taishi in surprise, grabbed his trouser leg, and begged, "No, no ... lord, you listen to me, I will definitely do the things you ordered down! Please be sure to support me to become a Wufan, in the future I will be obedient to you, and the Wufan clan will look up to you!"

Feng Taishi kicked away Lady Yueruo without any pity and said in a cold voice, "Let's put it this way, I'll give you three days, no matter if it's poisoning or assassination, I hope to see Tantai Yan's corpse after three days!"

Lady Yue Luo didn't even think about it and agreed in a loud voice.

Taishi Feng glared at the attendant next to him, who hurriedly came over to help Lady Yueruo up and settle her back into her chair.

Empress Feng swept a circle of the cowering crowd, cleared his throat, and said expressionlessly, ''Everyone follow what old me said before! We are all on the same boat, if anything happens to Lao Fu, you all won't want to live either!"

After a pause, he continued, "When everything is ready ... we will make a move to force the palace!